What You Don't Know about NAFTA

Business Week by Pete Engardio, Geri Smith, Jane Sasseen | Mar. 20, 2008 (Special Report)

The free-trade deal is taking the blame for huge job losses. But its true effects on workers and competitiveness are far more complicated

... the world has changed so profoundly since 1994 that trying to pin specific job losses and gains directly on Nafta is an exercise in futility. Myriad free-trade deals, from bilateral pacts to the World Trade Organization, have been struck since. Nations in Asia, Latin America, and Central Europe have opened up to foreign investment and have deregulated local industries. China has emerged as the world's workshop. Emerging-market crises and spendthrift ... Full Story »

Posted by Kaizar Campwala

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3.8

by Patricia L'Herrou - Oct. 1, 2008

a complex problem is discussed here, along with acknowledgment that the true effects on either country is still not sure. a significant point is "the real issue is globalization itself...nafta is just a proxy". if lost u.s. jobs or workers taking pay cuts or are losing benefits to keep jobs are one part of equalizing trade agreements with 'tougher standards', is there a way to be fair to all? there's not enough information here about the mexican workers' point of view, or the rest of the world if globalization is the real issue.